Mobile Suit Gundam: Ghosts of War
by son of vegeta
Summary: The Titans are in control, doing whatever they want to the innocents of Von Braun City. How will two retired 08th MS Team members retaliate against such a corrupt military power?
1. Everyday, Interrupted

Mobile Suit Gundam: Ghosts of War

By son_of_vegeta (formerly wingzeropilot)

DISCLAIMER: No, I don't own Mobile Suit Gundam or anything official (or most things unofficial) related to it.  Leave me alone, I'm a college student.  The only thing you'd do by suing me is allow me to declare absolute bankruptcy and be free of my debt.

………Wait a minute, that's a good thing…

NOTE: I am aware of the crappy formatting on this.  This work, when I created it in MS Word XP, did NOT look as bad as this. There has to be some kind of uploading problem with Fanfiction.net.  Don't bother telling me about it in reviews, as I am fully aware (and VERY pissed) about it.

This fanfic contains much, much swearing.  Much like the uncut version of the show where two of the main characters came from.  Kudos to Sunrise or whoever did the dubbing for 08th MS Team for allowing such un-censoring in their English dub.  It added more realism to the story than ANY attempt to use the word "darn" at any time.

Chapter One: "Everyday", Interrupted

AUGUST 9, 0087:  AEUG ACTIVITIES INCREASE AS TITANS ANSWER QUESTIONS WITH FORCE

                The newspaper was as dependable as ever for crappy news.  Between reading too-liberal views and over-censored news, the man had had enough with the media in general.

                "Yesterday's news…"  The long-haired man tossed the paper in the garbage.  "Hey, Karen.  Why is it the damn news people always gotta screw around with what really goes on?  Liberal, conservative…  All this name-calling bull makes me sick of politics as a whole.  I'm gettin' tired of all this back-and-forth news reporting crap…"

The tall, well-built redhead standing at the kitchenette turned her head to look back at the man as he ranted, a usual occurrence.  Apparently, even after all these years together, he still hadn't gotten over his ability to point out the obvious and try and turn it into something incredibly revolutionary.

                "Hell if I know."  She pointed the butter knife in his direction.  "You, of all people, should be able to understand what goes on inside empty heads."

                "Hey, this empty head over here has saved _your_ ass plenty of times, remember?" he retorted as he crossed his arms, an indignant look coming across his face.  "What do you have to say about that?"

                "As I recall, your 'life-saving' techniques made you piss your pants every time," Karen Joshua replied, a know-it-all smile blossoming on her face.

                Eledore Massis considered this for a while.

                "…Your point?"

                Karen's left eyebrow raised.  Looking at the clock, she put the knife down.  "Listen, I'd love to stand here and keep pointing out your downfalls, but some of us have a job to go to."  With that, she grabbed the piece of toast she was preparing and headed for the door.  "See ya."

                He lazily waved a hand in her direction.  "Later."

                After their required service time in the military was over, the two had moved to Von Braun City on the moon.  Eledore, using money he had left over from the various songs he had written, bought a large plot of land and started up his own scrapyard business.  A fairly lucrative business, given the sheer volume of debris left over from the One-Year War and the many and varied battles afterwards.  He still wrote songs, but he had found a rewarding job in the "repair and resurrection" business.

Eledore let loose with a yawn of grand proportions.  _I need a nap…_

Of course, owning your own business allowed you to set your own hours, too.

                Another perk of life.

                "Oi, Karen!" a technician called out.  He ran past the side of the hangar, towards where Karen had just parked her jeep.  The tech waited for Karen to finish chewing on the mouthful of toast before he started ranting about the latest technical difficulty.  _Haven't even finished breakfast and I'm already on the job…_

                The tech kept on talking about the problem as they walked into the hangar.  Several mobile suits of various designs, primarily GMs, were lined up on either side of the long hangar.

                After getting out of the service, Karen had a bit of trouble finding a job she enjoyed.  She had tried working at an automotive maintenance shop, but thought the work there just wasn't of big enough scale.

Then she had tried being a secretary for a local lawyer.  Working for him had reminded her a little too much of serving under Captain Ryer.

Then she had found her current job: working as maintenance chief for the local organized militia.  It wasn't much, compared with the Earth Federal Forces, but she got to do work she enjoyed—tinkering around with mobile suits.  Granted, the mobile suits were all outdated compared with what was in service in the government, but it was all technology she was familiar with.

Karen told the tech what to do, and he ran off to perform the required task.  Soon, a short blonde came up to Karen and asked about the supplies they had ordered for the MS maintenance crew.

The day she started work at the Von Braun Defensive Force, the beautiful young woman had happily introduced herself as Midori Subasa, and insisted they become friends.  She was very friendly, and an extremely talented MS technician.  Karen soon found herself with a best friend.

_Never expected that to happen…_

Familiar work, friendly people, no having to carry out orders that went against her morals, and she was living peacefully with a man she was able to tolerate (to an extent).  She was happy with where she was.

That day, as many days in everyday life do, went rather quickly, filled with its own comings and goings, as everyday life does.

Everyday life is a funny thing.  It comes and goes, sometimes quickly, other times at a crawl.  One can never really say that everyday life is memorable, either.

The memorable events in life are what interrupt "everyday", and all too often, they interrupt in a most terrifying and bloody way.

"I'm home!" Karen called out as she walked back to the large scrapyard that was once a back yard.  She walked amongst the piles of junk until she found who she was looking for.

Eledore, for his part, didn't seem to notice her coming.  Then again, a colony drop probably wouldn't have disturbed him at that time.  Not with his headphones on, blasting rock music so loud Karen could hear it even above the high-powered air drill he was using.  Of course, not even the drill _or_ the music could compare to his "singing" along.

She grinned and stood behind him, waiting for him to be done with the part he was working on.  It looked like part of an ankle assembly for an old GM.  After all, a majority of the mobile suit parts used by her VBDF were provided by Eledore's scrapyard.

The music stopped, as did his singing.  "Been waiting on me long?"

Eledore must have been a lot more aware of his surroundings than he seemed to be.  Karen chuckled.  A lot of people could easily mistake Eledore for any random head-in-the-clouds fool (a _lot_ of people), but she knew better.

"Nah.  Just got back."

"Well, welcome back, then," he replied.  He stood up, wiping off his greasy hands on a rag.  "Just finishing up another part for your team.  Just between you and me, I think it'd work best on your suit."

She smiled.  He always said that.  Of course, if she had taken him up on every offer, she'd be piloting six MS by now.

"C'mon.  I'll go get supper ready."  She turned, heading for the house.

As the two walked back to the house, a loud, high-pitched whine slowly grew in volume.  A sudden, massive explosion ripped through the cityscape behind them.  Karen and Eledore whipped their heads around, just in time to watch a Titans Hi-Zack fly by and shoot at what looked like an AEUG Nemo.  The Nemo evaded, which made the salvo the Hi-Zack had unleashed hit a few houses behind where the MS used to be.

"Oh, hell.  Those goddamned Titans aren't even _trying_ to keep from hurting innocent people!" Eledore growled out.  Since the 30 Bunch Incident, he had a distinct dislike for the Federation's newest military branch, a dislike shared by Karen and many people in Von Braun.

The Nemo, for its part, seemed to be trying to lead the Hi-Zack away from the residential area, but the Hi-Zack didn't move more than half a kilometer from where it had stopped to shoot.

Karen's fists balled up.  "That bastard knows the Nemo isn't going to shoot at him while he's in the middle of a residential block!  He's using _us as a shield!"  She turned to Eledore.  "C'mon, we gotta get moving."_

He just stood there, looking angry and confused.  "Where?"

"The VBDF hangar.  We're a defensive force, we should be defending the city!"

He grabbed her arm, drawing her gaze into his.  He saw the need to do something in her eyes, and she in his, but he_ had to say it._

"Karen, listen to yourself!  These are the _Titans_ we're talking about, not some small group of leftover Zeon soldiers!  They're the entire goddamned _military right now!  You know what they'd do if they encountered an active city-sanctioned resistance here?"  The rest of the concept really didn't need to be said._

Another explosion ripped through the cityscape, this one not even two blocks away from the two.

Karen broke their gaze, shutting her eyes, her head drooping.  She really couldn't do anything about it, and it drove her mad knowing that.

Eledore started off towards where the explosion had hit, not letting go of her arm.  "C'mon, Karen.  That one was close, and there's bound to be injured people over there.  You've got more medical training than most people in the area.  Let's go help them."

"Right…"

The battle went on for a while.  More civilians than soldiers were killed or injured, it seemed.  One stray missile had taken out a war shelter containing nearly 300 civilians, killing the entire lot of them.  A hospital was also destroyed by stray fire from a Hi-Zack.

A few of the Nemos had thrown their guns aside, either deciding it would be better if they surrendered, rather than allowing more of the city to be destroyed, or that being a prisoner beat dying in combat.

They were wrong.  The Titans took no prisoners that day.

Karen stood and watched as the last of the survivors was taken away in an ambulance to one of the surviving hospitals.  She stood, wondering as the battle drew to a close elsewhere in the city.

_What the hell was I fighting for eight years ago?_

Eledore walked up behind her, putting his hand on her shoulder.

"C'mon.  Let's go home."  His voice was as weary as she felt.

On the way back, Karen's hands were clenched into fists so hard that soon blood seeped between her fingers.

The next day did not go very smoothly.  Since the Titans had successfully occupied the city, the VBDF was "under suspension."  Not that it mattered much to about half the techs and eight of the pilots; they were all killed in the fighting between the Titans and AEUG.

So, even though they weren't going to be launching for quite a while, Karen went down to the hangar to do maintenance on some of the MS.  Working hard helped clear her head, and after the previous day, she needed a _lot_ of clearing to be done.  It helped immensely that Midori decided to show up, for pretty much the same reason.  She busied herself working on the cockpit hatch of an old Rick Dom.  The rest of the day, if not interrupted by _anything_, would have made it somewhat tolerable.

Then the group of four off-duty Titans came by the hangar.  Not only did Karen have to put up with the fact that she really couldn't hurt any of them for what they had did the previous day, not without disastrous consequences, but they even went out of their way to make the day a living hell.

"Hey, macho chick!  Why're ya servicing those old pieces of shit?" one brown-haired soldier piped up as he and his group of lackeys stood outside the hangar doors.  "I bet it won't even move!"  His arrogant laugh only made the situation worse.

"Hey, I heard that that macho chick over there is Eledore Massis's woman."

"Really?  That songwriter guy?"  Apparently, one of the soldiers knew about Eledore's songwriting career.

"Yeah.  He's the one who wrote all those real shitty songs, ranting on and on about love and stupid shit like that.  Worst goddamned songs I've ever heard!"

"No kiddin'.  I'd rather listen to that classical boy band shit!"  More arrogant laughing ensued.

_Okay, everyone is entitled to their own opinions.  Even I have songs that I like more than Eledore's.  At least they aren't blowing shit up._

Of course, if they just harassed _her_, it meant that they weren't harassing someone _else_ at the time.  Karen tried to keep this thought going through her head as much as she could, trying to salvage something, _anything_ of that godforsaken day.

The Titans, as usual, refused to cooperate.

"Hey, cutie!"  Karen turned her head to the speaker, a redhead. The redhead looped his arm around Midori's neck and tried to plant a kiss on her face.  Midori tried to get away, but the soldier's arm didn't allow for much movement.  The other Titans crowded around the two.  Midori's face showed extreme discomfort at not being able to get away from the self-indulging "casanova".  "No, not you, macho chick, I'm talking to your friend there.  Wanna go get some tea, baby?"

Karen knew that Midori was prettier than she was.  It was a simple fact that she had gotten over a long time ago.  The Titans officer pointing it out so loudly didn't bother her in the least.  The fact that he was making _her_ best friend miserable, now _that's_ what pissed Karen off.  Slowly, she stood up, her knuckles white as she gripped the torque wrench as hard as she could.

"Karen…" Midori said, warning clear in her soft-spoken yet firm voice.  "Remember: _Titans!  They're Titans, not drunk idiots!"_

It was too late.  When Karen got angry, _truly angry, there was no stopping what would occur later._

One big, messy fight, with all sorts of techniques and injuries involved.

Eledore barreled down the road in his buggy, headed for the hangar.  He had just gotten done with the finishing touches on the GM battle computer he had salvaged a week previous and was on his way to deliver it to Karen.

Then he saw her.  Or, rather, the unconscious, beaten-bloody form that _was_ her earlier that day.  To make matters _even worse, he also saw Midori lying not too far from Karen.  Her clothing had been ripped to shreds, and she too looked like she had been beaten badly…_

Karen's eyes fluttered open.  The brightness of the ceiling light stung for a bit, but she soon adjusted and looked around.  Somehow, she had ended up in the medical bay of the VBDF hangar, and was bandaged up quite a bit…

_Oh, right.  Those Titans bastards ganged up on me after I started that fight with them…_

All she could remember at that point had been getting down from the service lift, walking over to the Titans dick who had tried to hit on Midori (while keeping a perfect poker face the whole time), stopping in front of him, and slamming her right fist straight into his nose, which _crunch_ed in a most satisfying way.  She followed it up with a left uppercut into his gut, and a roundhouse kick to the side of his head as he was doubling over.

Before he had hit the ground, she had hit the brown-haired Titan with a spinning backhand punch and left hook, which left him seeing stars.  However, by that time, the two other Titans had caught on to what was happening, and decided to jump her.  One went low, the other high, and Karen had found herself on the ground.  The second Titan had recovered surprisingly fast from her punches, and started kicking her in the ribs.

She managed to wrestle her arms out of the grip of one of the merciless bastards, grabbing onto the redhead's leg and twisting the ankle around as hard and as quick as she could.  The bones, ligaments, and tendons were _not_ intended to bend that way, and a sickening _crack_ came from the joint.

That was the last amount of damage she was able to get in, though.  The first Titan she had hit had also more or less recovered, and the other had reestablished his grip on her arms.  The two Titans holding onto her lifted her up, and she had no way to fight back as the first Titan pounded her face and gut with his fists and feet.

The very last thing she could recall was Midori screaming, "NO!" as they had dropped her and made their way to the younger, less "macho" woman.  After that, she had lost consciousness.

"Hey, you're alive," Eledore said gently, giving her a weak smile.  He was sitting on a folding chair right next to her bunk, the back of the chair resting against his chest.

"Hey…" she tried to get up, but regretted that decision immediately.  The intense pain that had blossomed from her midsection meant one thing: broken ribs, and lots of them.

"Don't even try, or I'll pump you so full of painkillers you won't be coherent for a month," he said, a serious look on his face washing away the weak smile from before.  Concern seemed to flow out of his eyes as he looked at her.  "You were out for seven hours.  I can only guess what happened to you and Midori…"

_Oh, SHIT!  Midori!_

Any pain she had felt earlier vanished as any thought to her own well-being was annihilated by concern for her best friend.  "Eledore, where is Midori?  Is she OK?"

His right eye twitched, and his gaze fell away from hers, finding a place in his hands.  Not a good sign.

"Well, she wasn't roughed up nearly as bad as you were.  Physically, I mean…"  The tone of his voice scared her as to the further information he was trying to sum up the nerve to say.  Hatred, anger, and sadness for his mate's best friend was painfully obvious in his eyes to Karen.  "I'm no doctor, but…  Karen, I think she was raped…"

A hollow shock went through Karen, from heart to her extremities.  She sat there, trying to get a grasp on reality, and failing.

_No way.  No FUCKING way…  God Almighty, why?  Why let something like that happen to someone so goddamned innocent…?!  Fuck, I bet that was her first time, too… To lose something like that to fucking bastards like those…_

A few minutes later, after Karen had gotten over a little bit of the shock, other thoughts came and began tormenting her.

_If I had fought a little harder, I'd have sent those bastards to the hospital, rather than letting them rape Midori.  Goddammit, if I hadn't even STARTED the goddamned fight, it wouldn't have happened!_

_It's all my fault…_

Eledore watched as his mate's face conveyed the thoughts going through her head.  Shock, sadness, anger, absolute rage, a sadness so intense it raged at his heart, and tears of every kind…

_Except joy, of course…___

He had to say it, or he'd regret it the rest of his life.  "Karen, it wasn't your fault.  I'm sure of it.  I don't know what happened, but seeing what I did, I'm sure you tried to keep this from happening and whoever did this overpowered you…"

Karen turned to Eledore, ignoring what he said completely.  "Where is she?"

Eledore nodded towards the other end of the room.  A white curtain separated the two cots, but Karen could kind of make out the silhouette of someone lying down on the bed.

"She woke up about an hour after I got you guys in here.  She's just lain there, the whole time, staring at the ceiling… I think this has really gotten to her, Karen."  Karen's eyes flashed in momentary anger towards Eledore for that last comment.  "I mean, more than what I've heard about rape victims."  He made sure to keep his voice very low, just barely above an inaudible whisper, so as to not let Midori hear him.  "She's damn near catatonic…"

Karen's head drooped, looking down at the cot where she was sitting up on.  "Call the hospital and the police.  We can't help her as much as they can, I think."

"Tried.  Seems all the hospitals are so full still from the Titans' blowing everything to hell that the best they can offer is field triage at the local high school gym.  And the police already have their hands full with earlier Titans shit…"

Silence ruled for several minutes, neither person knowing quite what to say.  Then Karen asked the fateful question:

"What do we do now?"

Silence ruled for a few more minutes.  Neither one of the two had an answer.

"We fight back."  Both heads turned to the sound of Midori's soft-spoken, yet still-firm voice, as the curtain between them slid to the side.  Midori stood there, a makeshift gown comprised of a trenchcoat covering her body.  They stared at her, surprised being an understatement.  Midori was a very peaceful person, one who would never, _ever_ have hurt so much as a fly unless she _absolutely_ had to.

Eledore was the first to respond.

"Huh?"

Midori, with a steely resolve neither of the two had seen before and a complete lack of any emotion whatsoever, explained the plan to her.

Apparently, Midori had some AEUG friends.  The kind of AEUG friends who offered to let her join if she ever lost faith in the morals of the Federation's military force.  The kind of AEUG friends who had lots of pull with the captains of a few AEUG ships.

The kind of AEUG friends who could maybe even smuggle some working mobile suits out of Von Braun City. 

And, more importantly, the kind of AEUG friends who could easily smuggle several people out of Von Braun City.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Author's Notes

OK, I know that one was short compared to most of my other fics (especially Gundam Wing: Vengeance), but it served as a good "pilot" episode.

I'm going to try and write this so that it seems like it's a screenplay to an actual Gundam series.  It'll have its own ups and downs (hopefully not too many "filler" episodes/chapters), but it'll definitely be an epic saga.  Chapters will be written as though they were episodes, so they'll all be about the same length (6-ish pages is approximately a half-hour show, I guess…).

In case you can't tell, this is set during about the middle of Zeta Gundam.  If you haven't seen it (like most of us), don't fret.  It'll be released here in the States this year (2003).  Yes, it's going to be sweet, especially after this whole "G Gundam", "Gundam Wing", etc. stuff (anything non-UC).  It'll be good to watch the darkest Gundam series ever, if you ask me (especially one from the original creator of Gundam, "Kill-Em-All" Tomino).

READ AND REVIEW, OR MY HI-NU GUNDAM WILL STEP ON YOU!


	2. Preparations for Rebellion

A/N: READ AND REVIEW! OR ELSE!  
  
Oh, yeah. I don't own Mobile Suit Gundam, the characters within any iteration of it, etc etc etc. If I did, I sure as hell wouldn't be using subsidized student loans to pay my $16,000-a-year tuition.  
  
A/N: A line of * means a break in time or location. Just a heads-up, as I've had to tinker with the formatting to make up for the crappiness of the Document Upload program on FFN, which somehow toys around with any and all paragraph formatting of MS Word.  
  
Chapter Two: Preparations for Rebellion  
  
"OK, so what do we do now?" Eledore asked, turning his head to Karen as they walked out of the makeshift infirmary in the VBDF hangar. They had listened as Midori had explained about the AEUG friends she had, but the only "plan" they had was the basic idea of defection, nothing more.  
  
Karen looked over to him as she shut the door, wincing slightly at the pressure put on her multiple broken ribs. With any luck, the painkillers would be setting in any time now. Midori said she'd be OK, even though Karen insisted that she come and stay with the two.  
  
Midori simply shook her head and pointed to a nearby gun storage rack, a face devoid of emotion but eyes ablaze with sadness. "I'll be fine for now."  
  
"I'm not too sure," she replied meekly. "Sounds like Midori's AEUG buddies could ship out a few mobile suits along with us, though."  
  
Midori's AEUG resources consisted of AEUG-sympathetic freighter pilots who shipped out the post-reclamation solid waste remains from Von Braun City. They themselves weren't "active" AEUG soldiers, but they knew who was.  
  
"Yeah, but we'd have to take them apart, first," Eledore replied as they made their way to the jeep outside. "I've seen those freighters. Their cargo holds are big, but an assembled mobile suit would be too easy to see if a Titan inspection crew came by."  
  
Karen nodded as she got into the passenger side. "Yeah, I guess so. Even though those Titans bastards are too stuck-up to actually do a halfway- decent inspection of solid waste containers, even something as big as a mobile suit would show up to them."  
  
"Yeah, I suppose so," Eledore replied as they drove off home.  
  
***********************************************************  
  
"OK, people, let's get this thing disassembled as quickly as possible, here!" Karen shouted to the techs surrounding the old RGM-79G Command-type GM. "I want this thing in pieces by lunchtime!"  
  
She may have been suffering from her broken ribs and other injuries for the past week, but that wasn't going to stop her from doing everything in her power to do something.  
  
I've got to do this to the best of my ability. For Midori.  
  
The attractive female tech still seemed very distant, but she was improving. Karen really wasn't afraid Midori would commit suicide or anything drastic like that. Despite being one of the sweetest, most soft- spoken people Karen knew, she knew full well that, if provoked in certain ways, Midori had the potential of being more frightening than anything Hell could spawn.  
  
Won't forget the time those techs thought it'd be funny to program half the mobile suit operating systems into saying, "Tech-babe Midori's a fine piece of ass," on startup. She made sure to let them know NOT to do it again.  
  
Karen had witnessed Midori's plotting of revenge against those techs. Her approach was extremely methodical and precise, making sure there were no mistakes in her plan. Of course the plan of revenge, through a combination of blackmail, extortion, thousands of tiny little taunts and jibes everywhere they went, and the cheery face she kept the whole time, worked flawlessly. That wasn't what had slightly scared Karen about it all.  
  
It was the fact that nothing, absolutely nothing was in any way, shape, or form traceable back to Midori, while at the same time it seemed obvious that it was her (to those techs, anyway; anyone else was incapable of believing that Midori was the mastermind behind it all). It was as though Midori had somehow, through some series of events in her life she had never mentioned before, absolutely and utterly perfected the art of revenge.  
  
After three weeks of her revenge, the techs profusely apologized, promising they would never, ever do anything like that to her. She had accepted their apology, but under one condition: they not only never did it to her again, but to promise they'd never do anything sexist like that again to anyone. Of course they had agreed. She had threatened them with more of her kinds of revenge if they didn't comply.  
  
The sweet, innocent Midori could be utterly terrifying at times.  
  
Of course, that was all in fun. It wasn't nearly as serious as rebelling against the established military branch of the world-unifying governmental body.  
  
"Chief? Chief Joshua, you still there?" one tech asked, waving his arm and clipboard in front of her gaze.  
  
Snapping out of her thoughts, she shook her head. "Sorry, you were saying?"  
  
"Chief, why is it that we're taking apart these MS? Seems like it kind of defeats the purpose for a military group to take apart their most effective tools."  
  
"I know what you mean, but with the Titans controlling the city the way they are, there's really no point in having thirty MS around when they're not going to get used," she replied as they started walking towards another mobile suit being dismantled, this one a blue RX-77D Mass-Production Guncannon. "Anyway, it'd be easier to maintain them like this. Since they're not going to be seeing any action for a while, we won't have to worry about putting them back together on the fly."  
  
"Oh, um, OK, Chief," the tech replied, seemingly satisfied with her answer as he went over to check on how the dismantling of the upper torso area of the Guncannon was going.  
  
Karen sighed as soon as he was out of vocal range. It wasn't a lie, really, but it wasn't the truth, either.  
  
She was still having a hard time stomaching the idea that she'd have to abandon all these people. The people who had put their faith in her, their lives in her hands. She had been elected as chief by them, so she naturally felt bad whenever she had to be dishonest with them.  
  
Just like when I had to watch the Commander for Captain Ryer. I had to deceive him, too, even though he invested a lot of unfounded trust in me.  
  
Being the honest person she was, with the attitude of "don't beat around the bush", deception was something she neither enjoyed or excelled at. But if I don't deceive everyone, there'll sure to be trouble. The deadliest kind of trouble, knowing the Titans.  
  
Snapping out of her self-imposed thought coma again, Karen ran her hand through her red mane of hair and walked across the hangar to where a halfway-dismantled RGM-79R GM II and a yet-to-be-tackled RGC-80 GM Cannon were being worked on.  
  
***********************************************************  
  
He was stuck in traffic. Again.  
  
"Ah, shit." This just ain't my day, Frank thought as he scratched at the three-day stubble on his chin. He put the extremely-sizable freight truck in park and waited for traffic to clear. From the height of the cab on his truck, he could see the accident that had halted traffic. We ain't goin' anywhere for a while. What a day.  
  
First of all, fuel prices had gone up quite a bit since the Titans had taken over Von Braun. Driving a vehicle as massive as his truck meant that would affect his pocketbook far more than the average driver. Then, Frank had gone home to find all his stuff on the lawn, with an eviction notice posted to the door of his apartment. That wasn't so bad, since he hated living there anyway. It was smaller than a college dorm, with far more less-civilized people around him. Stashing his stuff with one of his numerous cousins had somewhat solved that problem. No, all that wasn't as bad as the news he'd received earlier that day.  
  
Midori finally wanted to defect to the AEUG, and she was bringing friends. Normally, that would be great news. Frank really thought that Midori's talents were wasted with the VBDF. No, that wasn't the problem he had.  
  
They wanted to defect less than two weeks after the Titans had taken over Von Braun. Not only that, but they also wanted to haul out five dismantled mobile suits to take with them.  
  
No one ever thought about how they'd pull it off. They just assumed that stashing it amongst his cargo of solid waste would work all fine and dandy. Nevermind the fact that Titans were notorious for their less-than-civil treatment of opposing forces. Nevermind the fact that he'd already pissed off several of the Titans who were in charge of inspecting his cargo when he was hauling it outbound, which meant that they'd be even worse than usual in terms of their inspections. Nevermind the fact that he, a former Titan himself who had abandoned his post after the Thirty-Bunch Incident, was known to quite a few of the Titans officials stationed at Von Braun, meaning that they would especially be on the lookout for him.  
  
Frank sighed to himself again, smiling inwardly. Damn kids.  
***********************************************************  
"He's late," Eledore stated, kicking a pop can across the alley behind the hangar. He was none-too-happy about waiting, especially in 40-degree- Farenheight muggy weather at 3 AM.  
  
Midori walked slowly up to him from behind. "He'll be here," she replied in her soft-spoken voice.  
  
"He better. We're really risking our necks right now. You know what'll happen if some bored Titans patrol comes by and starts sticking their high- and-mighty noses in these crates?" he said, pointing behind them to the large, air-tight crates that were filled with parts from three of the five mobile suits they were planning on shipping out.  
  
Midori refrained from answering. She knew full well what happened when someone angered Titans. She knew all too well.  
  
Finally, after an hour of waiting, a pair of dimmed headlights made their way down the alley. The gigantic truck loomed to a halt after positioning itself with its cargo hatch facing the crates.  
  
The driver hauled his considerable bulk out of the vehicle. It was obvious that this man was born for some kind of manual labor. He just had an aura of unspectacularness about him. Excessive stubble, thinned black hair that covered only a fraction of the top of his head, a worn-out plaid jacket over a once-white tank top, and worn-out jeans made the man look truly suited to his job of a solid-waste transporter.  
  
"Hey, you guys ready to get this stuff outta here?" he asked in a very gruff voice.  
  
"Quick to the point, ain't ya?" Eledore said under his breath. As unhappy as he was, though, he was relieved that they'd finally be getting underway. Turning to the five VBDF techs and pilots who were defecting along with them, he waved to the crates. "All right, guys, time to load up."  
  
The three techs each took their motorized sled and drove them up into the cargo hold. The crates, after being unloaded, fit just fine. After the waste was dumped into the cargo hold, the crates would be completely unnoticeable. Any Titans inspection crews would have to dig through a minimum of two meters of solid human waste before hitting the airtight crates. A messy job, no matter how you did it.  
  
After all the loading was done with, the driver and Midori walked over to the driver's side door alone.  
  
Huh. Wonder what they're talking about. Eledore wondered.  
  
***********************************************************  
  
"You really sure 'bout this, Midori-chan?" Frank asked. He'd known Midori since she was a child. Frank was basically an unofficial uncle of hers, a friend of the family for many years. Although he was a basic laborer, he still went out of his way to do many things for her family. "If you get caught with all this stuff, you'll get a hell of a lot worse than your usual fine and jail time."  
  
"I know, but I have to do something to them," she replied, her voice conveying only resolve. She hadn't told him what had happened, how she had been raped by those Titans bastards.  
  
That's information that he really doesn't need to know, she thought.  
  
Seeing the look in her eyes, and the absolute conviction in her voice, Frank decided to stop his questioning of her decision. "All right, kid," he replied, his voice soft and understanding as he put his hand on her shoulder. "Just know that I'll help in any way I can."  
  
"Thank you," she replied, smiling slightly. She knew full well he was willing to do most anything for her family. Her father had saved his life during the One-Year War, so Frank had pledged his life to do what he could to repay the debt.  
  
"Don't worry 'bout it, kid. I'm more than happy to be helpin' you fight for the good guys," he said to her, his face showing a great amount of pride as he hugged her.  
  
Eledore approached the two from the back of the truck. "Loading's all done. We'll ship the rest out next week, same time."  
  
Frank nodded to the long-haired musician as he let go of Midori. "Gotcha."  
  
Eledore turned to face the massive truck. "Just be sure to have this thing ready to take on a crate of people, too. We'll be getting out of here, too."  
  
"No problem. She'll be ready for ya." Frank turned and hauled himself up into the driver's seat. "See you next week, then," he said, waving good- bye.  
  
"Thanks again for all your help," Eledore said, smiling to the man. He could appreciate someone who really stuck their neck out for what they believed to be right, and if someone was sticking their neck out when they didn't have to at that time, it was Frank.  
  
"Hey, I told you earlier not to worry 'bout it. I'll manage," he casually replied, as though this sort of thing were routine for him. His gaze turned soft as he looked over to the young female tech. "Bye, Midori. I'll be waitin' for ya next week."  
  
"Take care, Frank," she replied. Eledore was slightly surprised to find that her voice was finally showing emotion again. This time, it was full of loving and caring. Of hope that a close friend or family member would be OK.  
  
Frank gave a cocky half-grin as he pulled the truck out of the alley and started off down the road.  
  
Midori watched the truck's tail lights until they were no longer visible. Her face was etched with worry. Seeing this, Eledore put a reassuring hand on her shoulder.  
  
"He'll be fine, Midori. I'm sure he knows what he's doing," he said, looking down at her.  
  
A small smile found its way on her lips.  
  
I hope so.  
  
***********************************************************  
  
"So, what's the story with this Frank guy, anyway?" Karen asked as she and Midori sat down for lunch the next day. "He an old boyfriend or something?"  
  
Midori smiled. "No, a close friend of the family. He and my father served together in the One-Year War." With a crack, she opened up her can of pop, the kind that was mostly caffeine and sugar and only slightly anything else (A/N: the kind this fic was written on!). "They were both GM pilots in the last few space battles fought. That's how I first started to know how mobile suits worked and such. I was only fifteen at the time, but it still interested me. Anywho, Frank and my father fought together at Solomon, where my father died."  
  
Karen winced. The Battle of Solomon had been a victory for the Federation, sure, but it had cost the lives of many, many mobile suit pilots and ship crews. GMs were especially known for their overall turnover rate.  
  
"Frank was in a GM that was about to get destroyed by that mobile armor the Zeon deployed, the Big Zam, but my dad shoved his mobile suit out of the way with his. He took most of the force of the attack. His suit blew, and Frank's was slightly damaged." Midori's bright blue eyes showed a slight pain, but didn't show any signs of tears. This was something she'd gotten over a long time ago, but still pained her slightly, as any traumatic event would.  
  
"After that, Frank basically made a life-debt pledge to my family." Her face brightened somewhat. "He certainly doesn't look it, but he's one of the most honorable and trustworthy people I've ever known. He even helped me through high school and most of the way through tech school after my mother was killed in a car accident."  
  
Karen took all this in, but was soon confused about one point. "He helped you through high school and tech school? He must make more money off that freight business than his appearance lets on." she said, biting into her sandwich after verbally finishing her thought.  
  
Midori shook her head. "No, he worked for Anaheim Electronics after the war, as a mobile suit test pilot. Made a lot of money, too. That's how he helped out. But after that colony accident thing in 0083, Anaheim cancelled a few of their projects, or something like that, which meant that he got laid off with a hundred or so techs and researchers."  
  
Karen grunted and nodded. She remembered the news about some accident that had caused two colonies that were being moved to veer off course, one smashing into Kansas on Earth. Something about the structural integrity of one of the mirrors on each colony giving way, causing them to break off, which in turn caused the two colonies to smack into each other. The impact, according to the news, was at just enough of an angle and had just enough force to make it slingshot around the moon on its own and hit Earth. That's what happens when you clumsily move multi-million-ton pieces of equipment, I guess.  
  
"Well, after that, he took out a few loans from a small-time bank on the 30- Bunch Colony and bought the freighter he's been using for his own hauling business. When the colony got gassed, the entire bank staff and everyone associated with it were killed, and all the paperwork on his loans hadn't been completely processed, so he was basically freed of his debts for the freighter."  
  
"That helped."  
  
She smiled a little, but soon turned grim. "Yeah, but his other debts still haunt him. Even now, there's debt collectors just waiting for him to mess up even a little bit, so they can take that freighter away from him to pay the debts he owes."  
  
"Oh," Karen replied, not completely surprised, but still a little shocked. Guess that makes sense. Even in uneasy times like these, I guess some people still live their lives mostly unaffected by the problems of war, and usually they're the ones who know who owes who money.  
  
"I just hope we don't end up messing everything up for him. His luck is bad enough as it is," Midori said, sighing to herself and sweatdropping slightly.  
  
Karen smiled. This was the Midori she knew. She was glad that Midori wasn't letting her bad experiences get the best of her. Moving on was the last stage of coping, and she was glad to finally see it show itself.  
  
"I'm sure he'll be fine. He seems very competent from what you've told me," she offered.  
  
"Yeah, I'm sure he'll be fine. After all, if he can survive the One-Year War in a GM, he should be able to survive just about anything, right?" Midori replied, smiling wryly and laughing a bit.  
  
Karen smiled. Yep, this is definitely the Midori we all know and love.  
  
"Yeah, I guess you're right," she replied, joining in the hearty laugh.  
  
She made sure to enjoy the rest of the day. In a week, these kinds of good times would be gone.  
  
Possibly forever.  
  
***********************************************************  
  
TO BE CONTINUED.  
  
A/N: Yeah, I know this one was shorter, but it's 4 AM. Give me a break, my creative juices are running out for today (as is the obscene amount of caffeine I've had thus far tonight/this morning). Also keep in mind that this is what I consider to be a "fluff" chapter, meaning that a whole lot of superfluous stuff is going on. Consider it a "filler" episode of this quasi-OAV.  
  
I'm aware that the formatting of this chapter blows. Believe me, I've done what I can to fix it, but there's only so much I can do. If you've got a beef with that, tell the people who coded the document upload thing on FFN, not me. It ain't my fault their code messes around with the formatting of the fics.  
  
A lot of people, I'm sure, will say, "Hey, 'Frank' is a name that really doesn't sound all that Gundam-ish or Japanese. What's the deal?" Sorry, people, but you can't tell me that there aren't people named Frank in that time period. Besides, "Frank" is the perfect name for your average general laborer (no offense to any Franks out there). If I gave him some Gundam- ish or Japanese name, he'd sound a lot more important to the storyline than he really is. Minor character=unspectacular. Hey, at least I didn't make him into another Kai! 


	3. Escaping the Captured City

A/N: READ AND REVIEW, OR—Ah, forget it.  You'll do whatever you want to.  No "R&R" post thing will convince people to review no matter how hard I try…

BTW, thanks to all you who have posted reviews thus far.  Although I've already got the entire storyline set in stone, I probably will include a few of the ideas that have been posted.  Again, arigato gozaimasu!

Ah, yes.  Almost forgot.  I don't own Mobile Suit Gundam, the characters, etc.  If I did own all that, I wouldn't be working in a co-op with a Michigan-based refrigeration engineering firm during the summer.  No, I'd definitely be writing this in Maui or somewhere nice where it never, ever rains for an entire month at a time, all the while taunting us with occasional 3-hour-long windows of really nice weather, thus lulling us into a false sense of security and tricking me into leaving my car windows down when I go into work (damn you Mother Nature!).

Both that, and the fact that if I DID own MS Gundam, this wouldn't be a fanfic, now would it? ^_^

Note that this is an unusually-long chapter.  Think of it as an extra-long episode.

Chapter Three: Escaping the Captured City

"I told you before, we're taking the mobile suits apart for maintenance reasons," Karen exhaustedly tried explaining to the 50-something Titans inspector.

Again.

For the fifth time since he arrived.

Sighing heavily, she restrained herself from taking a nearby wrench and seeing if this man had any brains between his ears or not, and instead decided to just keep on following the vacuous man as he finished up his bi-weekly inspection of the VBDF hangar.

"Chief Joshua, can you please tell me what happened to five of the mobile suits that are on this list, but missing from the hangar?" the portly Titans officer asked, finally recognizing her existence as he looked up from his clipboard.  His bushy gray eyebrows almost masked his pupils from her sight, as he only tilted his head _slightly above the selfsame clipboard._

Internally bracing herself for the worse, she put up the facade that she had been practicing for the past week-and-a-half, one of frustration and exhaustion (which, at that point, were only half-faked).

"A few days before you people got here, two of our mobile suits on patrol were caught in a small meteor shower.  We managed to rescue the pilots, but we had to abandon the MS out there," she explained, waving her hand vaguely to the ceiling of the dome covering all of Von Braun.  "They've probably been reduced to scrap by now."  She paused slightly, hoping the round man would buy it.

"And the other three suits?" he asked, slightly annoyed that she had stopped explaining.  That bought Karen a small grin that she enjoyed purely internally.  She couldn't afford to drop her annoyed front for a second right now.

"You'll find the bits and pieces of them in the crates in the storage room," she replied as they started walking towards the stated room.  Time to employ some brown-nosing on a very massive level.  "I figured that, since the Titans are here, we won't have to worry about anything and it'll give us time to fully maintain the parts to our MS.  Taking them apart and servicing each individual subassembly would be a lot more effective than keeping the whole thing together and not being able to access certain areas of the construction," she said, making sure to lace her voice with "feminine frailty" when she talked about the presence of the Titans, as though she were certain that she'd never, ever have to worry about anything now that they were around.

"Well, I'm glad _someone appreciates our presence here.  You'd be surprised how many people really hate our being here," he replied, a stupid-happy smile spreading across his face._

_You don't know the half of it, pal!  Karen had to work hard to suppress the laugh that threatened to break out at any time.  _Oh, brother!  This guy's as gullible as they come!__

"Well, it looks like everything is OK here," he said, clipping his pen to the clipboard.  He smiled back at her as he walked off to his jeep.  "And don't worry about anything, darling.  Now that us Titans are here, you won't have to worry about keeping these old MS running.  I'm sure you've got a nice young fellow waiting at home for you to cook him a nice dinner."

It took everything Karen had for willpower to keep from decking the aging man straight in the face and smile at him instead.  She was just lucky he didn't notice how her left eyebrow was twitching with _extreme_ anger, how a vein on her forehead was starting to protrude, or how her hands had clenched into extremely tight fists.

She almost screamed when the ever-so-nice officer went ahead and waved good-bye to her before he drove off.

_I swear to God, every Titan out there is trying to kill me.  Each one uses a different method, and I think I just survived the one that "kills with kindness."_

This was a facet of the Titans she had hoped not to encounter: the kind Titans officer.  Granted, this one was a bit _too kind, acting more like a kind grandfather than anything else, but it still had the possibility to make her stance against the Titans waver at a critical moment.  She had heard what had happened when you began to feel for the enemy._

_The Commander told me what had happened when he didn't take out that Zaku pilot.  Nearly every man in Kiki's village was killed by the anti-personnel charge she launched after he hesitated._

She gave her head a good shake.  _Remember Midori, and how you felt after that incident, Karen.  Never forget what they stole from her._

Resolving herself, she turned away from the parking lot and headed towards the three crates the Titans officer had looked at earlier.  It was a good thing she'd managed to distract him away from actually looking _inside_.  If he knew anything about mobile suit construction (which was unlikely, but one never knows what kinds of cards fate can deal at any given time), he'd have seen that, although two of the crates _did contain two dismantled mobile suits, the third was filled with parts from a wide assortment of MS, along with a small compartment meant to hide people, as well._

There would be no way in hell _that_ kind of cargo would pass inspection.

"I'm home!" Karen shouted as she walked through the door of the small home she and Eledore lived in.  It wasn't much of a home—a kitchen, a bedroom, a bathroom, a small screened-in porch, and a living room, that was about it.  It wasn't much, but, as they say, it was home.

"Oi!  Come check this out!" Eledore replied from inside the living room.  "Seems the Titans tried to pull a British on Granada," he continued as she sat down next to him on their old couch.  "Didn't work, though."  The "British" he referred to was, of course, Operation British, the first attack ever consisting of a space colony being dropped onto the surface of an inhabited body in space—namely, Earth.  That colony drop by the Zeon had missed its intended target of Jaburo, but managed to completely annihilate Sidney, Australia, instead.

_So now the Titans are doing colony drops, Karen thought to herself.  __When will enough be enough?!_

Karen shook her head slowly in frustration.  "When the hell will the Federation government reign these bastards in?  Sometimes I think it'll take the death of every spacenoid out there before anyone in the government will notice what's going on out here."

Eledore nodded grimly.  "Yeah.  I also heard that a week ago the government even signed legislature that'll _expand_ the power the Titans get to wield.  Makes you wonder what they're thinking, doesn't it?"

Karen merely sighed as she ran her hand through her red mane of hair.  "Well, by tomorrow, we'll be out there fighting them, alongside the AEUG."

Eledore smiled a bit as he leaned back and put his arm around his lover.  "Then we'll have to be sure to give those Titans absolute hell once we're out there.  All this sitting around and waitin' is getting me almost wishing we were already out there."

"I know what you mean," Karen replied, leaning into Eledore's half-embrace.  "Just wait 'til I tell you about the Titans inspector that came by today…" she started.

                After eating what they regarded as their last meal in Von Braun, Karen and Eledore packed their belongings in a couple of duffel bags.  By the time they were finished sorting through what they would take and what they wouldn't, it was an hour before their scheduled meeting time with Frank, Midori, and the three techs that were also defecting at the VBDF hangar.

Just enough time to check on the crates and prepare themselves mentally for the excursion they were about to face.

The two donned trenchcoats and fedoras, and made their way to the VBDF hangar.  As scheduled, Frank and Midori were both there, along with two of the techs, all making sure everything was going as planned.

"Hey guys," Eledore said as he and Karen got out of their jeep.  He walked over to the back of the vehicle and retrieved their belongings.  "Everything set?"

"Everything's good to go," Midori replied.  Her voice conveyed a mix of anticipation, anxiousness, worry, and maybe even a bit of happiness.  Happiness at finally escaping the captured Von Braun.

Frank just nodded, with a slight grin on his face.

"Where's what's-his-face, the other tech guy?" Eledore asked one of the other techs, the one with medium-length curly brown hair.

"You mean Kenji?  He called me earlier and said he'd be running a bit late.  Something about car trouble or something," the tech replied.  "He said he wouldn't be long and that he'd meet us at the spaceport."

"Good," Karen said, looking over to the cargo truck.  The crates were already loaded.  "This is good.  So far, no really big problems…"

Why is it that, just when someone decides to point out that there are no problems, that the worst kind of problem could arise?

A pair of headlights made their way to the hangar just as the six began getting into the cab of Frank's truck.  The vehicle owning the headlights, a military-issue dark blue personnel truck with a large, yellow, bird-like logo emblazoned on the hood, rolled to a stop and six fully-armed Titans riot police scrambled out.

"Oh, shit…" was all Eledore got out before the leader of the Titans taskforce screamed out a "Freeze!"  The six ceased all movement as another figure got out of the personnel truck.

"Son of a bitch…" the other tech said.  "That bastard Kenji sold us out…"

Kenji just smiled and chuckled, his beer belly bouncing up and down.   "Sorry, guys, but this is the end of the line," he shouted towards the group across the 6-meter span between them.

The second tech's green eyes blazed in anger.  For a minute it seemed as though he would run charging across the gap between them and rip Kenji limb from portly limb.  He was just big enough that Eledore could bet he could do it, too, if not for the half-dozen armed Titans soldiers between the two.

"What the hell is the matter with you?!  You told me you hated the Titans, that you'd do anything to get them out of here!" the large tech yelled as he started walking towards his former colleague.

"Yeah, well, ya gotta think, the Titans are willing to give plenty of money and benefits to whoever helps them root out this rebel problem they've got," Kenji replied, shrugging.

The large tech stopped walking as the automatic weapons of the six Titans clicked in readiness to fire.  With a slight grin and a speed that seemed almost impossible for a man his size, the tech quick-drew a pistol from a holster under his coat and fired.  The shot managed to hit the traitorous Kenji straight between the eyebrows, spraying blood and gore onto the personnel truck behind him.

The return fire from the Titans squad tore through the large man, dropping him within five seconds.  Those five seconds were just enough for the five other defectors to jump into the cab of Frank's truck without getting hit by any stray fire.  Frank wiggled his way into the driver's side, flipping switches like mad to get the truck going.  Fire from the Titans soldiers bounced and ricocheted off of the truck's cabin and body, thankfully not directly hitting any flesh or fuel tanks.  As soon as the truck was able to, Frank gunned it, somehow managing to mow down two of the Titans soldiers and smashing their truck in the process.

"We gotta get to the spaceport, _now_!" Frank managed to bite out.  Midori looked over at him, eyes widening as she saw the spreading red stain over his right shoulder.

"Frank, you're hurt!" she half-yelled, somehow tearing off a part of her jacket sleeve and pressing it against his injured shoulder.  Even after all she'd been through, the sight of blood still bothered her greatly, especially blood coming from someone who was practically an uncle to her.

"I'll be fine.  One of the shots tore a chunk of plastic or something out of the cabin… just grazed me, that's all…" he said through clenched teeth.  Looking over at her, he saw the panicked look on her face, and turned his pain-felt grimace into a wry grin.  "Guess this means my life as a solid-waste transporter is over."

Midori seemed somewhat relieved by his grin, and managed one of her own.  "Yeah, I guess so."

"That's OK.  Hated the job, anyway."

For some reason (beyond mere fate, most likely), no other Titans patrols found them before they got to the spaceport.  Of course, there would naturally be a military checkpoint at the sprawling spaceport complex.  The flimsy wood gate proved little resistance to a multi-ton cargo truck barreling through at around 130 kilometers per hour (A/N: 130 km/hr is about 80.8 mi/hr).  The guards at the gate apparently weren't very experienced with handling situations like those presented to them at that moment, and thus responded rather poorly, scrambling in no actual formation and just firing at where they though the truck would move (which, of course, was ultimately _not_ where the truck moved).

Driving through truck lanes as well as pedestrian terminals (both empty due to the Titans' hold of "unauthorized" Von Braun traffic), the group finally reached their destination.

Frank's cargo ship reminded Karen very much of an upside-down six-tube missile launcher, the kind she used during the One-Year War in southeast Asia, except it was much, _much bigger.  There were three rectangular cargo holds, one to the left and right of the main body, and one on the bottom.  Near the back two small thruster "wings", deployable along the bottom half of the ship.  The left cargo hold doors, situated at the very front of the ship, were open, showing the inside of the hold.  The crates from the previous loads were inside, leaving plenty of room for the next three._

"Don't have much time…" Karen said under her breath.  She turned to Frank.  "How quickly can we load those crates in?"

The wry grin appeared once more.  "Why bother with subtlety at this point?  The truck should be able to make it inside the hold without too much trouble… I hope," he replied, nodding towards the doors.

Eledore took a moment to approximate the door span.  "You sure this truck'll be able to fit through those doors?"

The wry grin spread into a full-fledged smile.

"Nope."

As the truck approached the freighter, Frank increased the speed a bit.  With an ear-grating squeal of metal grinding against metal, the truck forced its way through the cargo doors and inside the expansive hold.  Bringing the truck to a halt, Frank was the first to pile out.  As the others made their way to the door leading inside the freighter's passenger area, he took a moment to look at his truck.

The doors to the hold were made out of the same high-tensile steel that many mobile suits were constructed from, which meant that they could stand up to quite a bit of punishment.  They had managed to come out unscathed, but the truck was another matter.  Most of the outer fiberglass and plastic on the sides had been peeled away, exposing the metal structure underneath.

"Damn.  Just had a new paint job done, too…"

Midori, the last one from the other four to reach the door to the interior of the freighter, turned back as she reached the door.  "Frank, let's go!"

"Right," he replied, running towards the door.  Pulling down a lever on a control panel, Frank went through the door as the hold doors began closing.

Frank ran to the cockpit as fast as his legs could carry him.  When he got there, he was surprised to see that Eledore had already begun the start-up sequence.

"Where are the others?" Frank asked from the doorway.

"Down in the galley.  Midori's looking for some bandages for that shoulder of yours," Eledore replied, not looking up from the control panels.

"Good.  Everything checking out OK?" Frank asked as he got into the pilot's seat.

"Yeah.  Looks like you keep this old thing pretty well-serviced."

"Thanks.  We'll have to talk more about modern mechanical maintenance after we get out of here."

"Yeah."

The ship lifted off less than five minutes later.  A few trucks of Titans police managed to find their way to the freighter, but there was little that their firearms could do to stop the freighter from leaving.  Frank took the ship from a hover to full-throttle forward thrust as soon as he was pointed at the doors of the spaceport.

"Hang on!" he shouted, right before the massive freighter smashed its way through the primary spaceport doors.  The doors gave way with a little bit of resistance, since they were designed to merely keep the port pressurized, and weren't the doors meant to keep ships in or out.  Had the secondary doors been closed, there would have been no way for the group to smash their way out.

"So, where're we headed off to?" Eledore asked after a brief silence.

"Shoal Zone of Lagrange Point 1.  Few of my buddies in the AEUG decided to hide out there for a bit to recover from a mission they just pulled off," Frank replied.  "From what I hear, the Titans pretty much leave the Shoal Zone alone for the most part.  There's the occasional patrol, but if you know how to hide in the debris, you can fool 'em." 

Eledore nodded and turned back to watching the stars outside.  Something to his right caught his eye, and he took a closer look.

"Shit.  Looks like we didn't make it out as clean as we hoped," he said, frantically looking at the control panels in front of him.  "Hey, doesn't this bucket have any weapons at all?!"

Frank turned and stared at him, his face showing a look of incredulous disbelief despite the wound on his shoulder.  "You actually think I'd be able to get ahold of any ship-mountable weapons, much less somehow put them on this thing, with those Titans here?  You're a lot stupider than I thought…."

Eledore stared back at him.  "Well, then, what _do you have?"_

Meanwhile, inside the MS hangar of the Titans Pegasus-class battleship Blue Rogue, Commandant Vaughn Devlin prepared himself and his men for further pursuit of the freighter.

"Listen, men.  I want to take that freighter intact if at all possible, but if it shows any signs of resistance, open fire and try to disable its engines," the tall, black-haired commandant shouted at his mobile suit pilots.  "I want people to interrogate, not corpses to examine!"

The five "Yessir"s from the men reassured Devlin.  He had served with those same five men since the formation of the Titans.  He knew their abilities, and allowed them to tailor their Hi-Zacks accordingly.  After his five subordinates had loaded themselves into their mobile suits, he got inside his Gaplant and got ready to lift-off.

"Commandant Devlin," the captain of the ship said through the comm link from the bridge.  "Please, let our MS corp handle this.  There's no need for me to let a high-ranking official like you risk yourself on such a small mission."

_God, the last thing I need.  Another brown-noser captain._

"We'll be fine.  Just another walk in the park," Devlin replied, putting on a false grin to help appease the captain's worry.

"I still wish you'd at least take half a squadron or so of our own MS with you…"

"Don't worry about us, really," Devlin said as he switched off the comm screen.  "Brownnosing moron."

"Sir," one of his men said, opening up another comm window on the panoramic cockpit screen.  "All MS report in the green and good to go."

"Good.  Lift off!"

"How's it look, Chief?" the one remaining tech asked Karen as she looked out the galley window into space.

"How's it look?  Like that Pegasus is launching MS, that's how it looks. I can only assume that Frank hasn't installed any kind of weapon on this tub," she said, looking over to Midori, who only shook her head.

"Oh, that's just great.  Out of the frying pan…" the young tech mumbled, grabbing at whatever restraints were located on his seat.

Midori turned to him and gave him a reassuring smile.  "Don't worry.  Frank may look like he doesn't have much in the way of wits about him, but I know he's prepared for something like this."

"I got nothin'," Frank replied.

"WHAT?!" Eledore screamed.  "You mean you didn't even _think about what might happen if a Titans ship gave pursuit?!"_

"Hey, you people didn't exactly give me a whole lotta time to prepare for this little stint, OK?!  You think I can just walk into some random store and ask the clerk for a beam cannon or somethin'?!" Frank shouted back as warning fire shot across the side of the ship.  Some random Titans officer started talking about the terms of surrender, but that transmission was cut off as Frank punched through the screen.

"Well, aren't we all cool, calm, and collected?" Karen asked sarcastically as she made her way through the cockpit door.  "Let me guess; neither of you has a clue how to get away from that ship."

"Pretty much," Frank replied simply.  Eledore just _humpfed._

"Well, aren't we lucky that a certain woman has an eye for detail.  Frank, I noticed each of your cargo holds has a separate thruster.  Does that mean that these things can detach from the main body of the ship?"

"Yeah.  Each one can detach and fly by itself," Frank explained.  Realization finally dawned on him.  "You aren't suggesting…"

"You can bet your ass I am," Karen replied.  "Eledore, get down there and tell everyone to get into the left-hand cargo hold.  It's the one with the crates, so it's the most valuable to us."

"Right," he replied, making his way out of the cockpit and to the galley.

Frank was practically in a panic by now.  "Now wait a goddamn minute, here.  You're telling me we're gonna separate the cargo hold and just fly away on our own?  What about my freighter?"

"To sum it all up, yeah.  We're also going to separate the other cargo holds and program them to fly off in different directions.  The main part of the ship will keep on flying forward, so it looks like we're still in here.  It'll make them think we're stashing illegal cargo or something—"

"Well, we _are stashing illegal cargo!"_

"_As I was saying," Karen continued, very annoyed at this point, "the other containers and the main ship will fly off in different directions, as will the container we'll be in.  If any Titans MS follow our container, we'll be to the Shoal Zone by the time they realize which one we're in and hopefully the debris or your buddies will take care of them."_

"The plan makes sense and all, but what about my freighter?" he shouted back as one "warning" shot found a destination somewhere along the side of the ship.

"You can go ahead and stay here, if you want.  I'm sure the Titans will love to have a big guy like you to interrogate," she replied, her tone crossing between nonchalance and apathy.  Her eyes, on the other hand, conveyed a great amount of annoyance and anger.  "Listen, if you want to stay alive and fight for Midori, you've got to come with us.  _Now!"_

_Fight for Midori…_

"What are you doing?" Karen shouted as Frank started his way back to the cockpit.

"Even if they are morons, those Titans will never believe that this thing is manned if we just rely on the autopilot.  Someone's gotta be in there piloting.  Otherwise, that container the rest of you are in will get captured for sure," he replied.  "What do _you_ think you're doing?  Get to the container!" he shouted as he shut and locked the cockpit door.  Another blast that hit the ship knocked Karen away from the door and down the hall towards where the others were headed.

_Sorry, Midori-chan.  I just can't let you get captured.  I can't let you get hurt again._

Even though he hadn't been told about Midori being raped by the Titans officers, he had known the moment he had seen her after the event that something terrible had happened.  The intense light in her eyes had been dimmed.  Knowing Midori as he did, he knew that only something vastly tragic could allow for something like that.  He had seen it only twice before: when her mother was killed in a traffic accident, and when he had told her that her father had been killed in combat.

_I can't let something like that happen to you.  You're too young to see what I've seen.  Live on, Midori-chan, and get those Titans bastards back for whatever it was they did to you._

"All right," Karen said as she shut the door to the port-side cargo hold.  "We're taking off.  Eledore, get to the controls.  Fly this thing like it was on autopilot.  Be sure to fly it at an angle equal to that of the starboard container.  Midori, Al, get strapped in."  Al, the other technician, nodded and strapped himself securely in.  Midori went over to Karen and grabbed her by the arm.

"Where's Frank?  Why isn't he here?"  Her eyes bled fright and concern.

Karen shook her head.  "I'm sorry, Midori, but he insists on flying the main body of the freighter to lure the Titans away."

Any hope there was in Midori's eyes instantly melted after hearing that.  Tears in her eyes, she tried running for the hatch leading back into the freighter's body, but Karen held her back.

"Listen!  We've got to worry about our own asses right now!  Frank made his decision; he chose his path!  Now let him walk it!"

Midori's resistance gradually ended, her arms and legs hanging limp.  Pain-filled sobs, ones that could only be felt by someone who had literally lost everyone she considered to be family, heaved from her as she slumped down to the deck after Karen let go.

After three "Surrender now" transmissions and several volleys of warning shots, Devlin was getting impatient.  The first transmission had ended rather abruptly, when a fat, grungy man had punched his camera, and the last two had been made towards static.

"Men, I don't think this one wants to come with us.  Prepare to fire at the following coordinates on—" he started, but trailed off as he watched the freighter split into pieces.

The left, right, and bottom cargo holds seemed to almost peel away from the main body of the freighter, each one going a different direction.  The main body, on the other hand, managed to maneuver its way away from a warning volley fired from one of the Hi-Zacks, and blasted away from the MS group as fast as it could.  The engines on the containers also fired, all of them being propelled in opposite directions.

"Commandant, what do we do?" one of Devlin's subordinates asked.  The man seemed a bit panicked, but made sure to keep his cool while talking with his superior officer.

"Hmmm… Norris, you and Glenn go for the right container.  Geoff, you go for the bottom one; it's taken a little damage, and probably won't put up much resistance if our quarry is inside.  Kaleb and Jorj, you go for that left container.  I'll get the middle part."

Each pilot acknowledged their orders and headed off to intercept the fleeing pieces of the freighter as Devlin blasted off in pursuit of the main body.

"There it is!" Eledore shouted out.  Karen looked up to the screen representing what was in front of them.

"Shoal Zone…" she said in amazement.  She had heard of what had happened there, the massive battle that had taken out hundreds of ships and MS, as well as a few colonies.  She could see why it was that no one had tried to rebuild anything out there; the amount of debris was simply staggering.

Eledore carefully piloted the lumbering cargo hold around the fused remains of a Musai that had rammed a Salamis-class.  Karen covered her mouth as she saw the bodies of the bridge crew of the Salamis, all killed when they had been exposed to the vacuum of space.  Right when he had passed it, fire from their lower back-left shot up and hit the debris they had just passed.

"Freighter section, you are hereby ordered to cease movement and prepare for boarding," the youthful voice of a Titans officer said.  There weren't any communications screens, so the warning was purely audio.

"It just keeps on getting better, don't it?" Eledore half-jokingly said, turning his head towards Karen.  "Can I discard this facade of a crappy autopilot yet?"

She grinned at him.  "Not yet.  Let him keep on thinking that you're just a computer moving a few sticks and pressing a few buttons."

Lumbering by a few destroyed Magellan-class ships, the freighter hold seemed to be playing chicken with half of a Columbus-class, until it reached minimum safety distance and finally hit its thrusters, missing the destroyed ship by mere meters.

"Damn, tha's gotta be some shitty autonav comp," Kaleb said to Jorj in a heavy Australian accent.  "Pilot prob'ly programmed i' 'imself."

"Yeah.  Mebee its sensor lens is fogged over," Jorj replied, his own accent one of French descent.

Both men had been born and raised on Earth.  As soon as they had heard about the formation of Jamitov Hyman's paramilitary group, the Titans, they had been among the first in their neighborhoods to sign up.  They had been immediately placed under command of Commandant Vaughn Devlin, and since they were the only two who hadn't come directly from the American continent, they had made quick friends with each other.  They always joked about the "idiotic" spacenoids, and always made them the butt of any and all dirty jokes they told.

"Looks like it's beginnin' to speed up," Kaleb pointed out as the main thruster of the freighter hold fired.  "Maybe the comp saw us an' got scared."

Jorj grinned.  Kaleb was a good friend, but he was so damned arrogant that the other members of their team had a running bet as to when Kaleb would let his overconfidence get himself killed.

The grin died when he saw, clustered amongst the debris, a fully-armed and nearly-undamaged Magellan class start opening fire.

Kaleb's Hi-Zack, modified with more armor and weapons, wasn't able to dodge all of the shots, and was quickly reduced to scrap as one of the beam shots found its mark, directly hitting Kaleb's cockpit.

"Kaleb!  You bastards…" Jorj said as he gunned the thrusters to his Hi-Zack.  Unlike Kaleb, he had modified his Hi-Zack for extreme mobility in space, adding thrusters in places any technician would deem "insane".  However, that increased mobility had saved Jorj's hide many times in combat.

Unfortunately for him, the increased number of thrusters weren't able to help him dodge a veritable wall of energy.  The incoming fire from the Magellan was soon added to by another ship, a refitted Salamis-class.  Jorj was clipped twice before a beam found his MS's reactor, detonating it in a split-second.

TO BE CONTINUED…

A/N: Whoa, whole lotta stuff goin' on, eh?  Well, just stay tuned for more updates on this fanfic.  I'm just a bit surprised I was able to write 80% of this chapter from 4-8 PM, rather than some time like 2 or 3 AM (which is usually when my writer's block goes to sleep and I can write a whole lot).

One more thing.  Hopefully, I'll have some images of ships, MS, etc. associated with this fanfic up soon.  I'll be sure to give a web URL sometime in the future.  A friend and I already have a 3D computer-generated model of one of the central MS from later on in the story, and I'm working on a model of Frank's freighter (which is a LOT easier to do than a mobile suit, believe you me!).  With any luck, I'll have some sort of webpage up and running by the time we reach said central MS in the storyline.  And NO, I'm NOT going to let you know what it is right now!  That would be a bit too much to give away, even for me!


	4. Joining the Ranks

A/N: READ AND REVIEW, OR—Ah, forget it.  You'll do whatever you want to.  No "R&R" post thing will convince people to review no matter how hard I try…

BTW, thanks to all you who have posted reviews thus far.  Although I've already got the entire storyline set in stone, I probably will include a few of the ideas that have been posted.  Again, arigato gozaimasu!

Ah, yes.  Almost forgot.  I don't own Mobile Suit Gundam, the characters, etc.  If I did, I'd be able to buy something more than an old, crappy 1989 Cutlass Calais, one rusted up so bad I can literally put my foot through its corner panels.  ^_^*

Both that, and the fact that if I DID own MS Gundam, this wouldn't be a fanfic, now would it?  Yeah, that's what I though.

Note: this- ~~[text]~~ denotes a flashback.  Please provide the wavy special effects on your own; my budget's tapped out right now.

Chapter Four: Joining the Ranks

                "Welcome to the AEUG carrier _Gaea_," the AEUG captain said as the four remaining defectors made their way out of the Columbus Kai-class's airlock.  He was a fairly big guy, with blonde hair swept back into a ponytail.  His build was athletic, not too muscular but not too thin.  With three-day stubble and a uniform that was definitely not regulation amongst any of the previous governmental bodies, he seemed a bit unkempt for a battleship captain.

                _Guess the AEUG is a bit more casual than most military groups, Eledore thought as they each shook the man's hand.  __Damn.  Looks like me and Karen aren't all that much older than this guy._

                "I heard a lot about you guys from Frank.  Where is he?  It's been a while since I saw him in person last," the captain said, his optimism betraying the truth the four knew.  They stood there, glaring at the deckplates at their feet.

                "He's not with us," Midori spoke up, tears threatening to spill from her eyes at any moment.  "He's probably been captured by now, or…"  She trailed off, her tone implying that which she could not bring herself to say.

                "I see…" the captain replied, his face showing weariness and a small amount of grief himself.  He probably knew as well as anyone what the Titans usually did to those who rebelled.  "Well, I'm confident he did what he thought was right, and by doing so, he made it so you could get here, I'm sure.  Come on, I'm sure you're all tired and hungry.  You can tell me what happened while you get something to eat."

                Over the course of their meal together, the four told the captain, one Gendo Kazuya, exactly what had happened, from Midori's rape to Frank's sacrifice.  Midori and Karen stayed silent practically the whole time, just sitting there, staring at the table.

                "I see…" the captain said after a brief silence.  "It's too bad.  Frank was a good man; I've known him for a long time.  Ever since the One-Year War, actually."

                Midori looked up at him from across the table, her eyes boring right into his.  "You knew him during the War?"

                Gendo leaned back in his seat.  "Yeah.  We served together in the MS Corps."

                "Did you know anyone by the name of Kensuke Subara?"  Her question was a quick one, almost barked out.

                "Frank told me Subara's daughter had wanted to defect, but I had no idea it was you.  I figured it was this one," he said, pointing his thumb towards Karen nonchalantly.  "She's what I imagined ol' Muscles' daughter to be."

                Karen just glared at the captain, her eyebrow twitching slightly.

                "So you did serve with my father, then."

                "Yep.  Me and Muscles were good buddies during the War.  Too bad about what happened at Solomon, though.  He was a good soldier, and a hell of a friend.  Maybe sometime later I'll tell you a bit more about him, in private."  He smiled warmly towards Midori as he leaned forward.  A genuine smile, one not tainted by any of the corruption that had perverted the smiles of the Titans officers who had assaulted her.

                She nodded, smiling slightly.  "I'd like that."

                The captain leaned back again and looked around at the other three defectors.  "So, you guys want to join the AEUG.  Can't say I blame you, from that story you told me.  To let you guys know, we'll be operating primarily out of here, in the Shoal Zone.  You'll get to know these debris fields pretty well after a while."  He stood up and walked over to the door.  He waited for the four to join him before he continued down one of the halls of the Columbus Kai-class carrier.

                "Exactly what kinds of missions and tasks is this fleet in charge of?" Karen asked.

                "Well, our assignment is a simple one: intercept and capture any supply convoys headed towards certain Titans bases.  If they can't be captured, we're to destroy them.  Lately we've been intercepting a few convoys destined for Von Braun, where you all are from, but mostly we've had the duty of taking out ships bound for Side 7."

                "Side 7?" Eledore said, a bit surprised.

                "Yeah.  A little while back, an AEUG ship called the _Argama_ managed to capture a couple of new Gundam-model mobile suits from a development facility there.  I don't suppose any of you heard about that."  He looked back and saw the somewhat-clueless looks on their faces.  "Guess not.  That's Titans censorship for you; if the general public had heard about that little disgrace, I'm sure more people would have flocked to our cause by now."

                "What about this fleet you've got here?" Al, the "other" tech, asked.  "Two Magellan-class gunships from the War, three refitted Salamis-class battleships, and one Columbus Kai-class carrier sure doesn't seem like an especially powerful force."

                "Well, it's enough of a force to do what we're needed to do," Gendo replied with a shrug.  "Without supplies, the Titans forces can be weakened just enough for us to stand a chance.  Know this: if it came down to it, the combined might of the Titans, coupled with their power over the entire Earth Federal Space Forces, could wipe out the AEUG.  It'd cost them quite a bit, but they could do it.  However, this is becoming a war of attrition between us and the Titans.  They outnumber us, but we have more experienced people in our ranks.  They have established power, but we have the advantage of mobility and evasion.  Despite their advantages, we have our own, but they aren't enough to completely destroy the Titans.  Thus, we've gotta try and maximize our chances of survival by taking out their supply lines, weakening their forces  wherever we can."

                The group passed by a large windowed section of the hallway, one looking out to the MS deck, where the mobile suits brought over by the four were being reassembled.  The group paused to watch the progress of the tech teams.

                "I've gotta say, I'm mighty impressed you managed to sneak out five whole mobile suits from under the noses of the Titans.  That takes a considerable amount of skill," Gendo said, shrugging slightly.

                "Balls, too.  Gotta have some damn balls, right Karen?" Eledore said, grinning and taking Karen's hand.

                Karen grinned back at him as she squeezed his hand.  _Damn straight._

                "Well, balls are one thing.  This is another," Gendo replied, his hand gesturing towards all five mobile suits.  "Our forces will definitely benefit from the assortment of MS you've generously provided.  I assume it's OK if a few of our pilots take some of these MS?"

                Everyone nodded.  Since the MS they had taken weren't any of the "personal" mobile suits of any of the people there, nor any of the pilots back at Von Braun, none of them really had a preference.

                "Good.  If any of you want to be a pilot of one of our mobile suits, or any of yours, feel free to let me know.  It may take some convincing to get some of our pilots to give their MS up, but I'm sure I could manage it if you see an MS you want for yourself.  Our pilots tend to think of their MS more as pet projects, ones they know they'll be done with eventually."

                Karen looked at the others.  Seeing their expressions, she shook her head.  "No, I don't think it'll come to that.  We've got our MS, you've got yours.  Besides, most of the people here aren't exactly pilot material," she said, wryly grinning towards Eledore.  He just replied with a mock-offended _hmpf_.

                "Well, I'm sure we can find you all plenty of work to do, no matter what your abilities may be."

                "Well, if it isn't Subara-san," Gendo said, answering his cabin door.  "I assume you want to talk to me about your father.  Please, come in," he said, stepping to the side and extending his arm in a "come on in" gesture.

                "Thank you, Captain Kazuya," she replied in a rather timid voice.

                "Now, now.  No need to be so shy with me, Subara-san.  Now tell me, what do you want to know?" he asked as he pulled a chair back from the small table in his rather cramped quarters.

                Taking the offered chair, Midori sat down.  "Well, I was hoping that maybe you could tell me what kind of a man he was like.  I mean, I know what he was like as a father and everything, but I never got to see my father as the man, Kensuke Subara."

                Gendo sat down in the chair across the table from her, gazing up at the ceiling as though his eyes could pierce through the passage of time itself.  "He was a very interesting man.  We nicknamed him 'Muscles', for obvious reasons; the man was huge compared to the rest of us.  But somehow, even though he was basically a walking tank of a man, he had a gentle nature, one that seemed like he wouldn't hurt a fly if he didn't have to.  Something about him told me to watch this man, that he was destined for something greater than becoming a mere GM pilot.

                "For one thing, he was one hell of a soldier.  He was top-notch in hand-to-hand combat, which I suppose helped his MS fighting abilities a bit.  I once heard him say that he had trained under three completely different forms of martial arts."

                Midori nodded, a smile coming to her face.  "Yeah, that was something Dad was always really proud of."

                "There was something he was much more proud of, though, Subara-san," Gendo said, leaning forward in his seat.  "You.  You were his pride and joy.  He loved you and your mother more than he loved anything else, whether it be MS or martial arts.  Anywhere he went, wherever we were stationed, his locker door would be covered in pictures of you two."

                Midori blushed slightly.  She had known that her father had kept a lot of pictures of her and her mother; they had gotten them back, along with his other possessions, after he was killed in combat.

                Gendo leaned back in his seat again.  "Anyway, in mobile suit combat, he was a pretty decent pilot.  Not the best we had, but pretty damn close.  Only me and our squad leader were better than him.  I can't tell you how many times we fought together near the end of the War, but it was many, I know that much.  He always fought well, but seemed to always hold back.  His gentle nature always showed through, no matter what.  He always disabled enemies when he could, always willing to take prisoners.  'Nobody ever regretted being able to get information straight from the horse's mouth,' he'd say to me.  We're damn lucky none of those Zeke soldiers had those microexplosives hidden in their teeth, like some of them during the War.  Otherwise, we'd definitely have regretted taking them alive."

                Gendo's face became a bit more serious than before.  "Did your father ever tell you about our little disagreement at the bar in Side 6?"  Midori shook her head, enticing a grin from Gendo.  "Too bad.  I always wanted to hear his side of it, but he always refused to let me know.  Guess I'll have to tell you the whole story, then."

~~Starlighter's Bar, Side 6; sometime in mid-December, 0079~~

                The three friends sat together at the bar, an ill-lit establishment in the less-cleanly parts of one of Side 6's open-type colonies.  The wall behind the bar was one big window, displaying the massive windows of the colony.  In short, the stars were always there when you sat at the bar, which gave the place its name.

                The rounder of the three, Frank, was already nearly passed-out drunk.  He'd gotten his GM damaged, again, and gotten yelled at by their superior officer.  After being threatened with demotion, Frank had invited Kensuke and Gendo out to drown his sorrows.

                Gendo was quite a bit more than buzzed at the time; seven shots of tequila and a bottle of vodka will do that to a man.  Kensuke was on his second glass of beer.

                Gendo fished something out from under his jacket.  A small vial, with a red, translucent liquid inside.

                "Oi, Kensuke," Gendo said, offering the vial to his friend.  "'Ere, try this.  It'll do wonders for ya tha' alcohol can't," he drunkenly slurred.

                Kensuke took one brief look at the vial, and quickly placed his gaze to the bottom of his glass of beer on the counter.  "Gendo, is that what I think it is?  Looks like that 'mythril' drug that's been going around."

                "Yer damn right.  Heh, this is some of the best stuff on the street," he replied, a smile on his face.

                "Gendo, you have five seconds to get rid of that."

                "Aw, c'mon.  We're buddies, ain't we?  An' buddies always share…"  The smile grew a bit when Kensuke rose from his chair.

                And died when the burly man grabbed his friend's outstretched arm and flip-threw him to the floor.

                "Wha' the hell was that for?!" Gendo shouted out.  He looked over to where his vial went, his face twisting with rage when he saw the red puddle and broken glass on the floor.  "Do ya know how much that shit costed me?!"

                "I don't give a damn how much that cost, Gendo," Kensuke replied, his voice icy.  "I only know this: that is one of the more addictive drugs out there, and if I ever, _ever see you with it again, I won't just beat the shit out of you.  I'll report you to the authorities, too."  His demeanor softened, as did his expression and tone.  "You're my buddy, right?  And as your friend, I'm concerned enough for your well-being to try and get you to leave that kind of stuff alone."_

~~Present~~

                Gendo chuckled to himself.  "At least, that's what I heard from the bartender later on.  I was too drunk to remember what happened.  All I know is this: your father saw my habit, and took measures to help me to break it."

                Midori was dumbfounded.  She'd never, ever heard of any case of her father needing to use such force against anyone, much less a close friend of his.  Apparently, her expression showed her reaction.

                "Don't believe it, do you?  I suppose he used that flip to try and boot my ass back into reality.  Maybe his anger actually showed for once.  I know he was a man with convictions, and that he never even thought about trying stuff like that out."  The captain grinned at the memories.  "He got me the help I needed, without our CO knowing, no less.  Never did find out how the hell he managed to arrange for my detox while I was on leave, but however he did it, I owed him from then on."

                Midori smiled as she looked away from Gendo.  "Seems like he was always getting people to owe him."

                "Subara-san, your father was a saint compared to the rest of us in the MS Corps.  He never did drugs, he only drank enough to fit in somewhat, and he never smoked.  A veritable man among men, really."  Gendo's expression darkened.  "He even died like one."

                Midori looked back at him.  "You were there when my father was killed?"

                Gendo nodded.  "Yeah, I was.  I saw him push Frank's GM out of the way of the Big Zam's particle beam.  Me and Frank wanted to try and plow our GMs into the damned thing; we thought that if we even dented it, we'd have avenged him in some way.  Our CO, however, stopped us.  He blocked our path with his own MS, saying we'd have to shoot him to get through.  He was good enough that he could have fought both of us at the same time and still won easily.  We knew we couldn't do anything anymore, so we followed orders.  We all screamed for joy when the Gundam took that big bastard out, though."

                Gendo looked over to the chronometer next to his bed.  "Look at the time.  Tomorrow's a big day, so you'd better get some sleep," he said as he got up and walked to the door.

                Midori also got up and walked to the door.  "Thank you, Captain.  For being honest."

                "Don't worry about it, Subara-san," he replied as he pressed a button, opening the door.  "Have a good night."

                The following morning began rather suddenly for some, with the captain's voice coming over the comm system to the rooms of Karen and Eledore and a number of bridge staff at about 0600 (A/N: 6:00 AM by military time).

                "Wake up, folks!  We've got news on a new convoy making its way towards Von Braun.  Please come to the bridge, ASAP."

                "Y'know, maybe joining these AEUG people wasn't the brightest of ideas," Eledore said groggily as he attempted to get out of bed.  Karen's arm, looped around his waste, however, prevented such attempts from succeeding.

                "Could be worse," Karen replied, her voice equally groggy.  "C'mon, five more minutes…"

                Eledore smiled down at his mate.  "It's our first day of work.  We don't want to be late, do we?"

                "Feh, I'll be late if I damn well want to."

                Eledore shook his head.  "I don't believe it.  You know, you were never this bad serving under Newbie."

                "Some of your habits rubbed off on me since then.  So sue me, it's your fault."

                "Very funny, but seriously, we need to get up.  I doubt that the good captain will want us coming in an hour from now," he replied, lifting her arm from his waist and walking over to get dressed.

                Gendo looked around at his bridge staff as they gathered around his chair for their meeting.  _Joshua and Massis aren't here yet.  It's been fifteen minutes.  Guess I'll have to start without them._

"OK, people, here's the news.  Another supply convoy is going to be headed for Von Braun.  This one's the one we've been hoping for for the past week," he said, grinning.  "A food convoy, with lots and lots of steak dinners inside.  I know we haven't really been well-stocked in the food department lately, so fight hard for this one and you'll all eat well."

                Karen and Eledore chose that moment to rush into the bridge.  Judging from their appearance, they seemed to have just woken up, gotten dressed, and promptly fell back into bed and gotten some more sleep.

                "Sorry we're late," Eledore said.  Karen didn't seem to care much about her tardiness.

                "I'll forgo the court-martials for now, considering you're recently enlisted.  Just be sure to be on time from now on," Gendo replied, smiling to the pair.  "As I was saying, this convoy is a food one, so it won't be overly-guarded.  Our priority is to capture them, but if it gets ugly, pull out and let the battleships handle the situation.  They'll be more intimidating to cargo ships than a few MS armed with machine guns."

                Karen raised her hand.  "Who will be leading the mobile suit squad?"

                Gendo looked over at her.  "Lieutenant Creede will be handling that position.  If you like, I could have you placed in the squad."

                "I'd appreciate it," Karen replied.  _I haven't been in an MS cockpit in a while.  I need the practice._

                "Mr. Massis, can you handle the role of enemy observation?  Our pilots will need their backs watched just in case this mission turns out a bit more ugly than most, and I know you have experience in departments such as that."

                Eledore nodded.  "Sure, no problem."

                "Good.  The convoy will be in the area of ambush in twelve hours.  Preparations will commence in two hours.  Do with your time what you will.  Some of us," he said, looking over at Eledore and Karen, "can go ahead and get some more sleep, if you want.  Report to your assigned stations at 1900."

                The chorus of "Yes, sir" from his subordinates reassured Gendo.  _This may be routine by now, but the enthusiasm shown by these people sure does surprise me at times.  We've probably done this a hundred times by now, but they just keep on goin'._

                Two hours came and went quickly, and Karen and Eledore soon found themselves on their way to their assigned posts.

                "So where are you headed to?" Eledore asked as they glided down the hall together.   Eledore had adapted to the "casual" dress code there on the _Gaea_, wearing a dark green mechanic's jumpsuit and a black vest.  As usual, a bandana kept his hair in check, this one black.

                "MS deck," she replied.  Somewhere, an AEUG officer had scrounged up a women's normal suit that was her size, one with white and blue trim.  She held her helmet underneath her left arm, her right hand gripping Eledore's left.  "Gotta show these kids what pilots from the War were like.  You?"

                "Observation deck   Gotta watch your ass while you're out there."

                "Hopefully you won't have to watch too hard," she replied as they stopped at a T-intersection in the hallways.  She had to go left, he had to go right.  "Well, good luck."

                "You, too," he replied with a wave as he grabbed one of the grip rails and glided down the hall.

                Karen made her way to the MS hangar and was surprised to see Midori and Al working there.

                "Oi, Karen!" Midori called out from across the hangar.  Taking a firm step, Midori propelled herself in the zero-g environment towards Karen.

                "Hey, Midori.  You got a mobile suit for me today?" Karen replied, a slight grin on her face.  _That sounded almost too much like Michel's "Chief, where's my mobile suit?"_

                Midori grinned back towards Al, and pointed to their left.  Karen looked up, and her only response was an impressed whistle.

                The mobile suit was obviously of a GM line, but it wasn't of any GM Karen had seen, not completely, anyway.  It was obviously derived from the RGM-79N GM Custom from a few years back, but it had been heavily-modified with more thrusters and engines than Karen thought was possible to mount on a mobile suit.  Two main thruster nozzles sprouted from the bottom of its thruster backpack, and it also had attitude control arms sprouting out the top.  A single beam saber stood out from the top-right side of the backpack.

Gray-on-lighter-gray tones highlighted the suit's impressive stature, and the 0080-style shield behind it was colored to match.  A modified beam rifle of some type lay on the weapons rack on the wall behind it.

                "I know, I've never seen anything like it, either," Midori said, her eyes falling on the clipboard in her hands.  "They call it an RGM-79P High-Mobility GM.  Seems it was on the production boards of the EFF, but they scrapped the idea when the Titans were formed.  The plans got tossed around the Federation engineers, then it fell into the hands of Anaheim, who made it as part of their contract with the AEUG."

                "What're its specs?"

                "Two primary engines on the backpack, augmented by twin engines on the outside of each leg, which, in turn, are augmented by single engines on the back of the legs, which in turn are augmented by twin engines in the bottoms of the feet.  Further augmentation provided by the attitude control arms, hip thrusters, another set of twin engines on the bottom of the backpack, and thrusters everywhere you can imagine, including some places you probably would rather not think about," Midori finished with a wry wink.  Karen just whistled again.

                "That's my mobile suit," a voice spoke up from behind Karen.  "Go easy with her, OK?"

                Karen turned around to face the source of the voice, a slightly-annoyed look on her face.  The man who spoke was short, almost as short as Midori.  A lithe frame and close-cropped haircut of brown color went well with his slim, gray-on-brown normal suit, as did his dark green eyes.

                "I'll try not to kill her out there," she replied sarcastically.  Midori just glared, pulled down her right eyelid with her finger, and stuck out her tongue.

                The smaller man smiled and shook his head a bit before glancing up at his mobile suit.  "Wasn't talking to you, Chief."  He held his hand out for a handshake.  "The name's Shun.  Shun Anami."

                Karen took the smaller man's offer and shook his hand, both sides giving a firm shake in a display of good character.  Letting go, Karen nodded her head towards the mobile suit.  "You do modification work on this thing?"

                Shun's smile grew.  "Yep, she's my pride and joy.  I heard a long time ago that speed is the essence of war, and after seeing a lot of my buddies get blown away because they couldn't move fast enough, I decided to go all-out and make the fastest thing I could.  She's really tricked-out compared to those junker GM IIs out there."

                Karen nodded, knowing what he spoke of.  The RGM-179 GM II, wasn't much more than a retooling of the original GM, the RGM-79.  That design had helped win the war only through sheer numbers; any number of things could have caused it to explode, and not all of them were enemy fire.  It was a poor design, but it had done its job, albeit at a costly price.

                "Well, you _look_ like you know what you're doing.  Mind if I take a look under the hood once we get back from this so-called mission?"

                "Not at all.  I'd be glad to help if you'd like," he said, tilting his head slightly, his hands opening in an offering gesture.

                "I don't think Chief Joshua would need help from a simple-minded fighter-jock," Midori said jokingly.  The man's seemingly-brash entrance warranted a bit of teasing.  For added insult, she went ahead and stuck her tongue out again as Karen propelled herself upwards to the cockpit.  Shun's eyebrow twitched a bit, but he just "Feh"-ed and floated past her.

                "Well, kid, I'd love to stay here and babysit, but I've got a mission to fly in," he said to her back.

                _That idiot has no idea what he's getting himself into, Karen thought.  She, of all people, knew of Midori's rather frightening sense of humorous revenge.  She wouldn't be surprised if the next time cocky Mr. Anami got into the cockpit of his mobile suit, he'd find that its core operating system had been reprogrammed to play annoying 21st-century pop music at random intervals._

                Karen sat down just in time to hear Eledore's voice over the intercom.

                "All mobile suit pilots, report in," the blond-haired former musician spoke out.  The various suit pilots reported in, each in their own personalized way.  A few mumbled, some arrogantly challenged various things, and a few joke-insults were hurled (few of them being able to be considered "clean").  Only two or three actually used any kind of military-esque report-in phrase, one of them being Karen.

                "All right, pilots, just leave everything to me.  When it comes to watching your asses, I'm the best you folks could hope for!" Eledore brashly stated.

                "I could argue that," Karen replied over the open comm.  "This is Chief Joshua, moving to the airlock."

                Her GM walked off of the cradle on which it rested, grabbing its shield and rifle.  Various display panels lit up on the panoramic monitor and the panels on the linear chair as the mobile suit's hands interfaced with its weapons.  Karen let out one more impressed whistle when the rifle interfaced with the suit's OS.

                _The crazy bastard doesn't just use a beam rifle.  It's a carbine!_

                Karen had heard of those kinds of rifle modifications before.  Take a normal, standard-issue beam rifle and rig it so the barrel not only is capable of firing beams from the energy packs, but also grenades from a separate mechanism and clip.  Looking down at the control handles, Karen could see two different switches where only one normally was.  That meant that one could fire off a beam shot, and right after that hit the enemy with a grenade launched from the same rifle, all in a split-second.  The biggest problem with that kind of setup would be if she accidentally launched a grenade first, and right after that shot a beam rifle round, or if a grenade was launched in a time before the barrel was allowed to cool to a certain point.  Either case would result in the grenade exploding at point-blank range, which would surely destroy her suit with the kind of grenade mounted in the rifle.

                _Impressive.__  Risky, but impressive._

                The mobile suit made its way over to the airlock doors, along with the dozen or so other mobile suits.  All the techs and extra pilots got out of the hangar bay before Karen opened the airlock doors.  One by one, each mobile suit flew out, heading towards the poorly-guarded food convoy that was due to pass by within the hour…

TO BE CONTINUED

A/N: Yeah, I know.  I'm leaving out some decent mech action.  Let's face it, though; they're going after cargo ships carrying food; not much is going to happen.  Besides, just wait till the real action starts.  You'll be glad you waited so long once you start reading what I'm capable of writing when it comes to mech battles, I guarantee it. ^_^


End file.
